resurrection people

I went to the funeral of a friends mom today. And was reminded of these realities.

"Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to teach the teachable; He did not come to improve the improvable; He did not come to reform the reformable. None of those things works."

Robert Farrar Capon

Christianity Today, last April, had a article from Eugene Peterson: Life in a Country of Death.

"I want to do is reaffirm this primary identity that we've been given by the resurrection of Jesus. This identity is nurtured and matured in our formation by resurrection.

It's a curious thing but not uncommon for Christians to begin well and gradually get worse. Instead of progressing like a pilgrim from strength to strength, we regress....

We lose our vitality. We become dull. We continue to go through these life-affirming, Christ-honoring motions, but our hearts are no longer in it."

Eugene Peterson, Living the Resurrection

Peterson goes on to write:

"We have this rich, rich tradition of formation-by-resurrection — why are so few interested?...

Two of our Gospel writers, Luke and John—insist on the importance of resurrection meals. The unimaginable transcendence of resurrection is assimilated into the most routine and ordinary of actions, eating a meal. We have a long tradition among Christians, given shape and content by our Scriptures, that practices the preparing, serving, and eating of meals as formational for living the resurrection. A culture of inhospitality forebodes resurrection famine."

We so often reduce the meal that we share together into the "Lord's Nibble" - what else can you call a tiny sip of wine/juice and a tiny piece of bread/cracker? The small group I'm part of eats together every few weeks & we share around the Lord's Table in the context of the meal... not something tacked on, or even the main focus, but as part of being Abba's children eating a meal, enjoying each other's presence around the table.